A Generation Alone, a primer on Generation X, by Bill Mahedy and Janet Lea Bernardi, was published in 1994 by InterVarsity Press, one of the first books to address generational change from a Christian perspective.
In 1994 William P. Mahedy was a college chaplain and young adult pastor for the Episcopal Church in San Diego. He had a background working as a chaplain with Vietnam Veterans. Janet Lea Bernardi was coordinator of campus & young adult ministries for Episcopal Church in San Diego, with a background in biochemistry and continuing medical research at the University of California. If anybody knows what they’re doing now, let me know! All I know is that Bill is a retired military chaplain living in San Diego.
Post Traumatic Generational Stress
In A Generation Alone, Bill draws on his experience as a veteran of the Vietnam war to examine the effects of generational trauma, including spiritual numbness and distorted images of God. One comment caught my attention. Many, because of shattered self-esteem, understand sin and guilt not in their classical Biblical sense but as a personal judgment on them by others.
Post traumatic stress disorder is an enduring condition resulting from stressful incidents beyond the normal range of human experiences. These could include combat, terrorism, genocide, torture, rape, violence, and devastating natural disasters. Generational cohorts coming of age in the middle of war experiences would be marked by brittleness, a survivor mentality, with serious moral and religious questions. During crisis, Mahedy tells us, the only priority is survival. Dealing with emotional responses – sorrow, grief, guilt, anger – is buried or repressed. In the wake of the crisis survivors may experience disturbing dreams, flashbacks, sleep disorders, violent behaviour, depression and emotional numbing. They may have feelings of detachment from others find themselves unable to feel loving towards others.
Trauma survivors are forced to engage with questions of meaning that others may never even consider. “Why did God allow this?” “What did I do to deserve this?” Evil becomes real and personal. Youthful illusions of omnipotence are shattered. Vulnerability becomes a permanent feature of consciousness.
Mahedy makes the connection between his work with Vietnam veterans and the members of Generation X he encounters on campus. He sees widespread problems with students struggling to develop a sense of stability and self-image. Young adults content with constant feelings of emptiness, depression, suicidal thinking, fear of the future, and lack of hope.
A key to the generational angst, Bernardi observes, is the experience of “aloneness”, resulting from abandonment and alienation. The alienated may seem fully engaged with others, but somehow portray a flatness of spirit in their relationships. This generation, the authors say, has grown up without their parents’ moral guidance and concern for spiritual wellbeing. The parental divorce rate is double that faced by the Boomers at the same age.
Generation X and its place in history, its destiny
Mahedy and Bernardi observe that Generation X in the United States was raised on the rubble of a “New Jerusalem” – the American dream of prosperity as ‘divine right’. This was the first wave to reach adulthood in the post-industrial or information age.
The authors provide a critique of Strauss and Howe’s theory of generational cycles in which Gen X (or 13th Gen) has developed as a reactive cohort responding to idealist Boomers. The Millennials, according to Strauss and Howe, are the new civic generation. The theory is that the Millennials will benefit from both the Xers desire to give better parenting than they received, and from Boomers conversion from narcissists into concerned midlife parents.
The authors point out that the Strauss and Howe theories have not taken into account the unprecedented rapidly accelerating pace of global, multicultural, interdependent technological civilisation. There is no evidence that the Boomers have undergone conversion from narcissism, immorality, self interest or greed. The social and moral pathology inflicted on Gen X is progressive – worse in younger cohorts. Mahedy and Bernardi wonder if Gen Xers will have enough emotional capacity to spend energy on parenting?
Another major factor changing the generational cycle is the monumental move from modernism to postmodernism. Science has been altered by twentieth century quantum physics. Political, economic and social systems are becoming more complex. The global village is now a reality.
Gen Xers cannot expect to achieve the economic success attained by parents, largely because of the broad changes in economy. Both parents need to work to support their family. There is a widening gap between rich and poor. The industrial system is downsizing and decentralising. Moral decay, linked with selfishness, is being revealed in the dominant American preoccupation with wealth and image.
Xers had the capacity to be prophets of hope to a struggling society. They were strengthened by both their embrace of suffering and their sense of humility and aloneness. Young Christians have the opportunity to “go beyond Constantine” – to find ways of being church without the Christendom position of privilege. They would need to find alternatives to privatised atheist secularism on one hand and enforced fundamentalism on the other.
Mahedy and Bernardi provide sweeping generalisations on Generation X, largely based on their observations of young adults they are encountering on University campus. In addition, Mahedy’s lenses are clearly affected by his work with the survivors of Vietnam. Their observations have been backed up by my colleagues in youth ministry who have remarked on how difficult it is to find psychologically healthy volunteers. Discipleship of young adults has needed to focus on recovery before moving towards mobilisation.